Harvard Muslim Chaplain Gets Caught Telling The Truth About Islam
Apostates -- people who leave the religion -- are supposed to be put to death...and are, with some frequency in Islam. Sadly, this conflicts with the "religion of peace" message Islam likes to convey to all the American sheep. But, occasionally, the truth rears its head, as Melody Y. Hu reports in The Harvard Crimson:

Harvard Islamic chaplain Taha Abdul-Basser '96 has recently come under fire for controversial statements in which he allegedly endorsed death as a punishment for Islamic apostates.

In a private e-mail to a student last week, Abdul-Basser wrote that there was "great wisdom (hikma) associated with the established and preserved position (capital punishment [for apostates]) and so, even if it makes some uncomfortable in the face of the hegemonic modern human rights discourse, one should not dismiss it out of hand."

The e-mail was forwarded over Muslim student e-mail lists and later picked up by the blogosphere, sparking debate and, in many cases, criticism of Abdul-Basser from those who have interpreted his statement as supporting the execution of those who leave the Islamic religion.

Commenter Chris over in Crimsonland put it well:

The chaplain wouldn't be staying true to Islamic teachings if he didn't support the execution of Muslims of leave Islam. This is what Muhammad ordered, as recorded in the Hadith:

So I don't think it's fair to blame him for correctly interpreting the commands of his religion. Instead, we ought to ask whether we ought to allow such a religion to have any legality in a democratic and human right-respecting society like ours.

Comments

Why are we giving such PC ass-kissing to Islam? Are we that afraid of being as bad as we were to the Japanese during WWII?

We'd never tolerate a religion that called for human sacrifice or so we'd like to believe. In tolerating Islam, we are, apparently, doing just that.

T's Grammy
at April 17, 2009 3:15 AM

We insist on toleration for a social system (not just a religion) that calls for our own destruction. If we are truly that weak and stupid, we deserve to be overwhelmed eventually.

Of course, we are already busily undermining the foundations of our own society (i.e., the family unit) even without the Muslims' help.

Jay R
at April 17, 2009 8:07 AM

We'd never tolerate a religion that called for human sacrifice or so we'd like to believe. In tolerating Islam, we are, apparently, doing just that.

Well put. It's because people are so uninformed about the actualities of Islam -- and the uninformed often include Muslims themselves, thanks to the way their religion is anti-Enlightenment (and enlightenment) and anti-science, and thanks to the reported 80 percent illiteracy rate of Muslims.

Islam is a religion of peace & tolerance, and anyone who says it isn't must be beheaded.

Loved this bit at the end: "Harvard Islamic Society spokesperson Nafees A. Syed praised Abdul-Basser for promoting diversity within HIS & the campus at large." Promoting diversity, by declaring that Muslims who change their religion must be killed!

Note the clarification at the very end: "The April 14 article "Chaplain's E-mail Sparks Controversy" included a quotation from a named Harvard student, who was later quoted anonymously when he revealed that this words could bring him into serious conflict with Muslim religious authorities"

So here we are, in the 21st century, and a student at one of the free world's most prestigious universities is so terrified of "Muslim religious authorities" that he has to hide his identity for believing that perhaps American Muslims should have the same freedom to choose their religion as everyone else. Who could have imagined this 40 years ago, and what will things be like 40 years from now?

The best phrase from that email is "hegemonic modern human rights discourse." Speaking as a human rights hegemonist, it's nice to see that the intolerant think the tolerant are not tolerant enough of intolerance.